Abstract
This study examines the processes of negotiation through which agribusiness investors are gaining access to large areas of land for oil palm plantations within the Kapuas Hulu district of West Kalimantan in Indonesia. Kapuas Hulu is at the forefront of current oil palm expansion in Indonesia, making this a revealing case-study of current practices at Indonesia’s oil palm frontier. In their book, Powers of Exclusion, Hall, Hirsh and Li. (2011) describe the complex interplay of processes that are assembled to effectively exclude some actors from accessing land while privileging others. In Indonesia, these powers are applied to explain how investors access plantation land for a fraction of its market value. This study presents the complexities of institutional interplays among different actors that negotiate land dispossession across three village environments, each at different stages of engagement with the palm oil industry. In Kapuas Hulu, agribusiness corporations often gain land access with the support of customary elites, causing tensions within many Dayak Iban communities. Yet, informal modes of organisation, centred on the traditional longhouse social structures, also collide with the powers of exclusion, to produce sites of resistance. Como citar este artigo:HASUDUNGAN, Albert; NEILSON, Jeff. Processes of land appropriation for large-scale oil palm development in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Revista NERA, v. 23, n. 51, p. 366-389, jan.-abr., 2020
Highlights
Compared to many other vegetable oils, palm oil offers an economically efficient and relatively low-cost production system in land abundant frontier regions, and strong international demand attracts the interest of large agribusiness investors
Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil producer, and investors are motivated by an abundance of cheap labour and large amounts of apparently available land
For Indonesian policy makers, palm oil presents a variety of economic advantages that have encouraged them to facilitate the expansion of plantations into the remoter parts of rural Indonesia
Summary
Compared to many other vegetable oils, palm oil offers an economically efficient and relatively low-cost production system in land abundant frontier regions, and strong international demand attracts the interest of large agribusiness investors. Mertz (2015) acknowledges the problem of land dispossession from large oil palm plantations in Sarawak and West Kalimantan, but suggests that it has increased the market participation and infrastructure access for rural communities. Rhein (2014) finds that, in West Kalimantan, a variety of actors have been involved in land enclosures and the allocation of concessions In those scenarios, local strongmen, senior bureaucrats, and influential businessmen have consolidated resources to establish palm oil. This paper examines the formal and informal processes through which large areas of land are appropriated by agribusiness investors, while local communities are effectively excluded from accessing that land. These processes involve a series of negotiations between investors and both state structures and local communities. The ensuing political negotiations can be seen as a process leading to the effective exclusion of certain actors (especially local communities) from areas subsequently converted to oil palm
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